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NC is really in no way, shape, or form a Mid-Atlantic state, and Virginia is even a bit of a stretch outside of the most northern part of it, NoVa. It seems like there are a bunch of people who are unwilling to recognize both of these states as Southern, so they call them Mid-Atlantic.
According to the contemporary definition of the mid-Atlantic, VA definitely has a case for being considered such (but it's also Southern). NC, not so much. The only part of NC I would consider mid-Atlanticish is the far northeastern part of the state (the Outer Banks/NC portion of the Hampton Roads metro).
No one in NC considered themselves anything besides Southern or maybe East Coast (if necessary). Virginia is interesting because in the last decade or so it has become more and more aligned with the Mid-Atlantic despite being the foundation of Southern and American culture during the colonial period into much of the post-independence history of the US. I know people who are not from the south who says they don't feel VA is southern which says a lot about how Virginia is moving away from its geographic culture much like Flordia did in the 2nd half of the 20th ceuntry. Part of the reason why NC is still seen as southern in the eyes of America is that we still align ourselves with the south, sweet tea is served statewide, all of our major cities perverse southern culture while still invite transplants, and saying y'all is acceptable in a professional setting.
NC is really in no way, shape, or form a Mid-Atlantic state, and Virginia is even a bit of a stretch outside of the most northern part of it, NoVa. It seems like there are a bunch of people who are unwilling to recognize both of these states as Southern, so they call them Mid-Atlantic.
Well, as I've said before, online is the only place I've heard anybody call NC Mid-Atlantic. In Virginia, there is a recognizance that we are Mid-Atlantic and southern, so I really don't know why this bothers you. Every other month you're bringing this up and complaining about it. I think what really gets your goat is that NC and VA are seen as distinguishable; you wouldn't be the first poster on here longing for the "good old days" that Virginia was seen as "capital of the South"...
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Originally Posted by mwalker96
No one in NC considered themselves anything besides Southern or maybe East Coast (if necessary). Virginia is interesting because in the last decade or so it has become more and more aligned with the Mid-Atlantic despite being the foundation of Southern and American culture during the colonial period into much of the post-independence history of the US. I know people who are not from the south who says they don't feel VA is southern which says a lot about how Virginia is moving away from its geographic culture much like Flordia did in the 2nd half of the 20th ceuntry. Part of the reason why NC is still seen as southern in the eyes of America is that we still align ourselves with the south, sweet tea is served statewide, all of our major cities perverse southern culture while still invite transplants, and saying y'all is acceptable in a professional setting.
Urban Virginians have considered themselves Mid-Atlantic for longer than a decade; maybe the national consciousness has caught up to how locals view themselves? We're going almost a dozen years from my graduating class (2007), and I can remember conversations from like my freshman year (2003-04), where this topic didn't specifically come up, but we regarded ourselves as closer to Maryland than to North Carolina culturally. I grew up in NoVa but I also went to high school in Central Virginia; I don't know why people think NoVa is some different world from Richmond or Hampton Roads (wait, yes I do)...
I'll agree that I have on occasion heard NCers call themselves East Coast as well as southern. Not Mid-atlantic, though...
The thing people have to realize is that Mid-Atlantic is a cultural terminology and today is rooted in the cultures of the DC-Baltimore area. There are a litany of examples that tie urban VA into that culture, both presently and most certainly historically...
I also have met many non-southerners from California to Ohio to The Bronx who don't consider Virginia southern, but they were specifically talking about Richmond or HR ir NoVa. This doesn't mean these areas aren't southern either, but I think people increasingly realize there is a different kind of southern in those areas, and many people have realized it for years now...
I ran a test at my job a year ago to see how many people felt they were southern or not:
NC is really in no way, shape, or form a Mid-Atlantic state, and Virginia is even a bit of a stretch outside of the most northern part of it, NoVa. It seems like there are a bunch of people who are unwilling to recognize both of these states as Southern, so they call them Mid-Atlantic.
Mid-Atlantic in my opinion refers more to geography, since if one looks at a map North Carolina and Virginia are squarely in the middle of the Atlantic Coast between Maine and Florida. The term "Southern" is more cultural than geographic, and of course North Carolina fits there as well.
Tidewater has been identifying as Mid-Atlantic my entire life (nearly 50 years) and longer.
I’ve always thought of the Mid-Atlantic as areas along the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. The cultural and economic ties go back centuries.
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